Here's how I started my day
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This Burning Pile of Walnut was what I ran into at the sawmill on my woodrun today. The burn pile is actually a gully, so the pile is about 10 feet high. Paul, the owner said that I could go out there and save some of it so I booked on over. Ends up that the pile was filled with Walnut and Cherry 4/4 lumber....along with tons of burls and various cutoffs. The lumber was in there because it wasn't 10 feet long so it was useless to them. Sheesh. I said, "Paul...you're breaking my heart man!" He said, "Let's go out there and see what we can save". So he grabbed a chainsaw and cut through the pile and we got a bunch of gorgeous walnut chunks. Then he started tossing out lumber. Evidently, I will be able to load up on all the flat stuff year round, so I guess the loft above the shop is about to be dedicated to lumber.
Here's the lumber. I piled it in the shop like this so the snow could melt and hopefully get it dried out a bit. I'll sticker it tommorrow.
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It's all cherry and walnut. Much of it is nicely figured stuff. Beautiful wood.....for fl..fl...flatwork.
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Here's a closeup of one of the figured walnut boards
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But....on to the turning wood.
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I just love this stuff. Paul considers it to be trash and just loves the fact that someone will make something out of it. We talked for a good hour today...about turning....but also about sharpening. He taught me how to sharpen my bandsaw blade and I was able to do my 93" blade tonight in 15 minutes. It was great. Oh...also, he gave me the number to a company where he gets his blades. He pays $13 for his 17 foot sawmill blades. As soon as I contact them, I'll post the details here so we can all benefit from this source.

I took one piece today and made this. Still not done, but Man!!! this stuff is pretty! It's 8" diameter and 3" deep.

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Continued.....